42 back in Vermont on August after- noons. Because I'm sentimental. "We drove back to Montana with a friend, and Ron and I sat in the back seat. 'Can J see the ball again?' he said. I handed it to him and watched Ron hold it for a fastball, a slider, a curve. He looked far-off still. . . . "This spring, there was an article in The Sportzng News about a Class A team being formed in BOIse, called the Buckskins. Tryouts were in June, and you needed three thousand dollars from a sponsor if you made the team. Something different, all right, but it was a chance to play ball. They'd signed the Sundown Kid-Danny Thomas-and a twenty-seven-year- old catcher from southern Idaho. I wanted Ron to go down and tryout. He said he wasn't in shape. He said he was happy playing on the Clinton Clowns, our town's fast-pitch softball team. It was obvious that he wasn't happy playing softball, and especially t ' ';' ': :itf'\: ,<;,, ,, ,\ ... 'I.<. ... '.:. "\ .'.' . "' ,, ". :. ,P : .. "' . ""f -:,-;"s: : '1; :</ :. "I." ." ';f " , <'} , :'. ,. . <, . , . "".. : :.::::-:" .:>>. ---.... ------ Â , f . <" <::. ., , , ":" _., .,, ..... ..' ." :,' .: :-....":"-.. '" '-....': obvious in the fall, when he'd pitch by himself-pitch baseball by throwing rotten apples from our tree against a telephone pole, and call balls and strIkes, hits and outs. . . ." Linda persuaded Ron to tryout for the Buckskins, but he didn't get around to it until a few days before their season was about to begin. A letter from the Buckskin manager, Gerry Craft, said they were looking for a left-handed pitcher, and that did the trick. "Our truck broke down," Linda's letter went on. "Planes were on strike. Finally, Ron's brother George drove him down. Ron was signed on the first day he threw-a good rotation on his curveball, they said. I didn't even know what Ron meant by that when he told me about it by long-distance. Gerry Craft had said he could go far in baseball, but what Gerry didn't know was that Ron had thrown his arm out-just about ruined it, it , , " '! ...'\. " ,"!- ," </ :-. '.;: \ .. '1"" '!."\- ... Ç,," ".' .... ...... . \ : \ ..' " '""'" ---- , ---.. , -' :, -",'" '\. , ,</ " , </ . , .:.......: . ;< (,. o' '-- 4;!J.. \' " 1 " ""'- . ..... . 001:, .... ._,.... v ""- "Oh, great! Cuffs are back." turned out-with the second curve he'd thrown. So Ron waited, in ice packs. Three days later, he came home with a swollen arm and a professional baseball player's contract. Five hun- dred dollars a month We started packing up his stuff and spent long hours looking for a sponsor . We ended up putting up our own money. Three thousand dollars may not sound like much to some people, but it was every- thing we had. I served Ron a steak dinner and kissed him goodbye. "I don't think it really sank in until I made the trip down to Boise to see the Buckskins play in their first home stand. Ron was standing there in his tan-and-black uniform, with a satin warmup jacket and real cleats, and I was just as excited about that as I'd been when I saw Mickey Rivers on the field in Seattle. I was goofy. . . . "N ow, anyone will tell you that this Buckskins team is different. The gen- eral manager, Lanny Moss [Lanny Moss is a woman], is very religious, and so is Gerry Craft. In right field at their park there's a huge billboard with 'JESUS' written on it in twelve- foot letters. In left field there's a strange picture of Christ Himself. Craft says he had a vision that told him to look around Spokane for a cabin in the woods, and that's where he found Danny Thomas, the Sun- down Kid. Danny left major-league ball [Thomas, an outfielder, had played for two seasons with the Brew- ers] because his religion required him to read the Bible from sundown Fri- day to sundown Saturday, which meant he mostly couldn't play on those days. And Craft has game strategy confirmed to him by the Bible, and stuff. Some of his ballplayers have been baptized on their road tri ps- I picture a clean white sink at the Salem Inn as the font, with the neat sample Ivory soap tablets resting at the side. But these ballplayers are the nicest people I've ever met. "I'm not the typical wife/girlfriend of a baseball player-those women you see on TV with their hair done up and their Rose Bowl Parade wave to the crowds. I like to watch baseball I love the game, and I'm one of the loudest fans in the stands. And when Ron's pi tchIng I find myself almost praying for a win. But the Buckskins don't win many games. The newspapers around the league have put too much stress on the religious aspect of the team. The players aren't all Jesus people. Most of them drink beer and swear. Gerry Craft rhubarbs with the umps with his